For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then Veyrath's voice, quieter now:
"You reject what you don't understand. But I wonder… how long until the world forces you to learn?"
The vision fell away.
Lindarion gasped, falling to one knee in the forest clearing, sweat glistening down his temple. The stars above were sharp again, the night unbroken, but the echo of that world still clung to him.
Ashwing startled awake with a growl. "What the hell happened? You were—your eyes—"
"I saw something," Lindarion said quietly. His hands trembled faintly before he steadied them on the hilt of his sword. "A memory. His memory."
Ashwing fluttered up onto his shoulder, eyes narrowing. "And?"
Lindarion looked up at the sky, at the faint light of the stars through the branches. "And it wasn't just his."
The system pulsed faintly in his vision.
[Foreign presence suppressed.]
[Residual data: retained.]
